What should we have in our fly boxes for the Spring Clave. Do you think we could run into a sea worm hatch? Any suggestions on what patterns I should be tying?

Lots of Backing,
Craig

juro

05-02-2001, 04:30 PM

I was talking to one of the guys who guides locally in the area and he suggested that there very well could be a worm hatch to fish to. They don't take a lot of room, why not?

When I was down there recently, I saw a healthy number of sand eels along the shore in the sound, mummichog (chubs) in the estuaries, and lots and lots of herring. Full sized adults, which are on the recovery diet plans for the post-spawn stripers upon arrival.

Here's how I target the fly assortement:

Staples:
Sand eels, silversides, and small herring patterns.

Topwater:
Poppers and sliders, definitely. Spring fish are feisty.

Big imitations:
Make sure you have some flies that a big herring-eating cow would notice in case we have the chance to tempt the herring chasing submarines.
Also, big squid flies. The fish that are onto the squid packs are the ones that are as fat as fall fish in May. No racers in the squid-chasing populations. just big strong spring fish.

Specials:
Worms, shrimp, crab, etc.

IMHO - FWIW... and all that:
In all honesty I think you can catch any schoolie around with a decent small bait pattern this time of year. The herring eaters must be tempted with large baitfish patterns.